324. When He opened the fifth seal. (6:9) This symbolizes an examination by the Lord of the states of life of people who would be saved on the day of the Last Judgment, and who in the meantime were sequestered.

That these people are the subject here is apparent from what now follows. But it should be known that these and others like them are the subject throughout chapter 20ff., an explanation of which chapter may be seen in nos. 840-874, which makes apparent just who they were and why they were sequestered.